FORMER BBC war reporter Kate Adie hails the bravery of those who risked life and limb at the front and faced prejudice at home as they helped the war effort.

VETERAN war correspondent Kate Adie risked life and limb to deliver news of terror attacks and conflicts from around the world.

Now the former BBC chief news correspondent has turned her attention to the forgotten achievements of women contributing to the Great War.

Kate
says putting herself in the firing line was nothing compared to the contribution of women in her latest book, Fighting On The Home Front: The Legacy Of Women In World War I.

Among those supporting the men in the trenches were Scotswomen enlisted as munitions workers at massive factories.

Glasgow provided Britain’s first female tram driver, while women became welders and caulker riveters in the yards.

OBE Kate hopes her book will give an insight into how the war changed the role of women.

“The war offered unexpected opportunities for women to get new jobs,” she said.

“The Clydeside was phenomenally important where women were the very first to get into the shipyards and into engineering plants.

“Small numbers of women had been campaigning for a good 10 to 15 years beforehand to get the vote.

SSPL/Science Museum

Women did jobs normally done by men

“But it didn’t really affect the working woman. It was more of an intellectual exercise.

“In 1914-18, everything changed at home.

“So many men were away.

“Women had to take on responsibilities.

“They had to change their way of life and even changed their appearance.

“Glasgow was a wonderful example. Glasgow has the kudos of having the first lady tram driver.

“This was revolutionary.

“Until then, there had been conductresses who wore wonderful, long tartan skirts.”

Not everybody enjoyed the idea of women helping the war effort.

“It
was done amid vast prejudice,” Kate said. “There was a nastiness about it. It was said that women didn’t have the intelligence or strength.

“On trolley buses they had to hook the poles on the wires.

“People were disparaging and said they couldn’t do it.

“A lot of people despised women’s abilities.

“Men just didn’t want them but so many skilled men had gone off to the war they had no choice.

“Women tram drivers in Glasgow went ahead and proved they could do it.”

Kate
added: “Women from Glasgow were recruited into munitions and went down to Gretna, which was the biggest munitions plant in the country.

“For many women this was the first time they had been out on a Saturday night.

“They were being paid more than they would normally earn.

“The munitions plants in Scotland and England formed football teams, partly because life in the factories was so hellish.

“It
was physically hard work and dangerous, and after being crammed together for 10 or 12-hour shifts there was a real need for the women and young girls to get some exercise.

“This was at a time when women were told exercise wasn’t good for them.

“The teams played football and the matches for war charities attracted huge crowds and got write-ups in the sports columns.”

Kate
also learned about Edinburgh doctor Elsie Inglis who was told to “go home and sit still” when she turned up at the war office and offered to supply doctors and nurses to the front.

Elsie persisted and went on to run field hospitals.

“Women who went as voluntary nurses and doctors were just behind frontline positions doing battlefield surgery,” Kate said.

“A great number of the women coped brilliantly.

“Reading their letters that were written by candlelight reveals they were steadfast under fire.

“The ambulance drivers astounded the men because they drove into places to collect wounded soldiers.

“Some of the women were famous at home but after the war their names faded.

“Instead, people discussed the military manoeuvres and the horrors of war.”

Women were also used to make sure the men enlisted.

Kate said: “Women were targeted to get recruitment going.

“There were posters saying things like, ‘Women Of Scotland, Where Are Your Boys?’ and ‘Is Your Best Boy In Khaki?’

“In previous conflicts, men went off to war as professional soldiers and fought a long way away in the empire.

“The Great War touched everybody. East coast towns were attacked by German destroyers.

“Women and children were killed. This hadn’t happened before. The country attacked.

“War was supposed to happen on the battlefield, not the streets.

“Women were involved in the war whether they liked it or not.”

Kate comforts an injured man

Northumberland-born
Adie, who began her career as a technician on Radio Durham, worked as a
producer before becoming a reporter.

She was as a junior working a late shift for the BBC when the SAS stormed the Iranian embassy.

First on the scene, she went on to become one of the BBC’s top correspondents.

She resigned as chief news correspondent 10 years ago.

Now living in Dorset, the 68-year old faced sexism at work.

“I
went to civil wars in small countries and to more formal, traditional military operations such as Gulf War I and Gulf War II, and several others,” she said.

“I
found the British military fine. If you manage to spend six months in a
desert with 43,000 blokes and come out of it saying, ‘That was great’, that gives you some idea.

“But if you are in a country with a society where women are treated like animals, such as Afghanistan,
where women have little status, few rights and are treated as dirt in rural and primitive areas, then you as a female are going to have to confront practical difficulties.”

However, she refuses to describe herself as having been brave in squaring up to warlords.

“No, I’m not brave,” she said. “I’ve never used the word.

“I
run fast and hide behind things. Journalists go as far as they should in order to bring the story back. That’s the bottom line.”

Despite being shot at, Kate said: “You don’t put yourself in danger.

“You are not there to be heroic. You’re there to find out what is going on.”

Reporting the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, she suffered a gunshot wound to
the elbow.